Niigata prefecture has let us down for the first time: as I've said, their snow forecast is the best, most accurate source for snowfall. Our own forecast here at Snow Japan is great for the freezing line and general conditions, but the snowfall levels are, as we all know, hard to predict. But Niigata dropped the ball yesterday, with a prediction of 30cm. We got a little dust.

That's OK, it's staying cold, and snow remains on the menu up to Sunday.

The clouds are moving in a little right now, so there's still a chance for the prefecture to score a come-from-behind win (of course, the new forecast comes up at 10am, so it's not real likely that we'll get hit that hard in that short of a time).